Reverend Grindal we honour his Name and Memory and take this true account of him Had King Edward the sixth lived he had been Bishop of London upon the Translation of Bishop Ridley to Durham He was a Confessor in Queen Mary's Reign he was a Disputant for his Religion in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and promoted by her first to London then to the Arch-bishoprick of York and thence to Canterbury he was a right famous and worthy Prelate his care was great to further the Glory of God but through envy of Ill-willers his Power was but small his Place was high but himself made low by some Disgrace by Potent Adversaries which he meekly and patiently endured to his dying day Mark during the space of this Man's Troubles Jesuits slocked into the Kingdom and the Faction at home grew bold This is the Testimony which is given him by Mr. Tho. Rogers's Preface to his Exposition of the Articles to Arch-bishop Bancroft How Grindal contributed you see by this Testimony Hear Mr. Cambden's Character and Report of him Edmundus Grindallus Vir pius gravis He flourished a good while in the Queen's Favour until he fell quite out of it by cunning undermining Arts as if he favoured the Conventicles and Prophesyings of turbulent Ministers but indeed the true Cause was because he condemned the unlawful Marriage of Julius an Italian Physician with another Man's Wife the Earl of Leicester vainly labouring to the contrary Camb. Ann. 1583. What those Prophesyings were and what an excellent Mind he had may be seen in his long and good Epistle to Queen Elizabeth in Fuller's Church History Also you may see in what Honour he stood in the Minds of the Fathers and Clergy of the Church of England by a Letter written by Toby Mathew afterwards Arch-bishop of York in the Name of both Houses of Convocation to the Queen humbly beseeching the Restauration of the Arch-bishop But had those Bishops and Members of that Convocation known as much as the Author of these Remarks or cared as much as he doth for the Danger and Honour of the Church they hâ—d not written on his behalf certainly Grindal had such an Estimation of Bishop Whitgift then in the time of his Troubles that he with other great Men were desirous of his Promotion to Canterbury and Grindal would be content with a Pension but Arch-bishop Whitgift utterly refused so to do Sir George Paul in the Life of Arch-bishop Whitgift p. 26. See now how the whole Convocation by their Letter and Whitgift by his refusal did contribute to the Indulgence by desiring the Restauration and Continuance of Grindal in his Place and for all I see if Grindalizers do no worse than Grindal the Church may be safe enough Ay but this Remarker sees more into the ways of the Church-Moles than they themselves do and more into the Church-story of those times than we do Grindal's fault was first in complying with Beza in procuring the Settlement of the French Church in London Where note if it was a fault to admit a Church on the Geneva Principle is it not a Grindalizing in our Arch-bishops and Bishops to suffer it now Here 's Charity to reformed Protestants 2. In complying with the Protestants that returned from Frankford but did he promote Whittingham to be Dean of Durham Sampson to be Dean of Christ-Church was he Patron of all the Preferments c. But it 's remarkable how closely he follows the Clew of History Cartwright was none of the Exiles in Frankford 2. Was not preferred to Warwick neither by him nor in his time but by Arch-bishop Whitgift And if Grindal was a Grindalizer Whitgift was for he plac'd Cartwright in Warwick and was by his Connivance a cause of what Mischief Mr. Cartwright did and the Queen was offended with Whitgift for conniving at Cartwright as Sir George Paul writes in the Life of Arch-bishop Whitg p. 55. And now we Church-Moles have by the Candle-light of History found that Whitgift was no better than a Grindalizer and so one of us But saith our Author that when Arch-bishop Whitgift's Zeal had almost crumbled their Ruptures into nothing then their Refuge was as Beza advised Cartwright in his Letter to unite themselves again to the main Body of the Church c. Whereas indeed upon Examination I find two Letters written by Beza to Cartwright in my Edit of his Epist. From former times he descends to ours and in Contemplation of our betraying the Church to our Enemies and our selves into the veriest Contempt and Slavery he might as the Church by the Waters of Babylon sit down and weep when he remembers Zion But Sir you say you might sit down but have you sate down and wept and wept to remember Sion wept at the Waters of Babylon or sate down with Pleasure to drink of the Cup I can find no sign of Harp upon the Willows that dance after a Pipe c. Thus for your Historical Pains 2. The Application follows Therefore as we would not Hypocritize c. and why not Grindalize waving little things we say 1. To your Tents O Israel was the Speech of Jeroboam casting off the House of David And therefore If Grindalizers must be our Name We Grindalizers declare this to you that we will not to our Tents for we have a Portion in David and an Inheritance in the Son of Jesse We will not follow Jeroboam and worship his Golden Calves Are you thereabouts with your Calves The Oath which we have sworn unto David we will by God's Grace perform we will not comply with our Enemies nor cut off our Friends we will gain-say seducing Spirits and look Faction in the Face We will follow the Advice of Calvin to Bucer in the things he wrote of which were not to avoid moderate Counsels in matters of Religion To endeavour by all means ut ritus qui superstitionis aliquid redolent tollantur medio to take away all Rites that favoured any thing of Superstition This I commend unto thee by Name that you may free your self from Envy with which many lead you for they do always entitle you either Author or Approver in all moderate and middle Counsels Nam mediis Consiliis vel Authorem vel Approbatorem semper inscribunt Calvin Bucero And therefore we will let our Moderation be known to all Men altho we will never reconcile the Articles of the Church to the Council of Trent according to sancta Clara no Cassandrian Grotian Consultation and Reduction And now I must leap over the rest of your Book to your Conclusion where you give a kind Farewel In your Conclusion you thus commend us to the Eye of the Government not for Favour and Preferment except it be that which the Nonconformists are dignified with and distinguished by which being dissected presents to our View 1. The profest Nonconformists threaten Danger and Dishonour to the Church 2. Grindalizers and Half-Conformists threaten little less 3. That their
Leg for a Pulpit c. But I will not irritate but wish we were all Followers of Christ qui fecit quod docuit as Cyprian speaks There are many others that send about their Characters to provoke the Magistrate to a Jealousy of their own Friends and it is time to offer a Vindication if it will be admitted And that I may contain my self within some Bounds of Method I will I. Vindicate the moderate Clergy and Laity from the fanciful Aspersions cast upon them by some II. I will endeavour a true Character of a moderate Conformist III. Vindicate him from the Censures of those that are offended with him Sect. I. I. Having done with Mr. Gould with little more than a Repetition I will consider a Charge against us as formed into a Party under a venerable Nick-name of Grindalizers This Name is imprinted on us by the Author of the Remarks upon the Growth of Nonconformity I know not the Author and can have no pique at him for any private Offence I cannot conceal my Wishes of him whoever he be I had rather he should prove to be a Lay-Person than a Preacher and a Papist than a Protestant He may be taken for an Author of Reading and Credit by such as cannot trace and detect him He handleth those Weapons against our Dissenters which the Papists thrust at the Protestants in the former Generation and which the Leaders in our Militant Church have twisted and wreathed like Bulrushes For instance his Imputations upon Calvin and Beza are the very same which Bishop Bilson doth vindicate in his Answer to the Jesuit True Difference between Christian Subjection and Antichristian Rebellion part 3. p. 509. and other of our Protestant Fathers He produceth those very Stories against the Nonconformists which Parsons the Jesuit Sylvester Petra sancta Barclay Paraenesis ad Scotos lib. 1. c. 3. Philanax Anglicus and that cheating Author called The Image of both Churches dedicated to Charles the First when Prince of Wales printed at Tournay 1623 written as 't is said by Pateson While he exposeth the Nonconformist to open Shame he brings upon the Stage what and the very same Things that the Papists fathered upon the Protestants and Reformed Churches and they are cleared of those Forgeries by our eminent Writers And so the Case of the Nonconformists so far is vindicated by Bishop Bilson Morton's Justification of the Protestants from the Charge of Rebellion in his Full Satisfaction concerning a double Romish Iniquity by Dr. Andr. Rivet Jesuit a vapulans and Du-Moulin Who suffers most by these Slanders a Party of Dissenting Protestants or the Protestant Reformed Churches Now whether this Work be more proper for a Papist or a Protestant not to say a Minister of the Church of England as some say the Author is let the Reader judg by his own Words from pag. 14 to 17. A second thing that promotes the Interest and Increase of Separation is Grindallizing By Grindallizers I mean the Conforming Nonconformists or rather such as are Conformists in their Profession Half-Conformists in their Practice Nonconformists in their Judgment like the old Gnostick Separatists which the Apostle calls double-minded Men or like the Sinner in Eccl. 2.13 that looks two manner of ways or like the Haven in Creet Acts 27.12 that bows and bends to the South and to the North to the Church of England and to the Kirk of Scotland as Interest and Opportunity shall incline These are they which down with all Oaths and Subscriptions required tho what they swallow whole in their Subscriptions they mince and mangle in their Practice they conform to all seemingly but hypocritically mangle the Common-Prayer handle the Surplice gently plow so cunningly with their Ox and Ass together carry it so cunningly that they can scarce be known but per modum opinionis by their open Compliances with the Enemies of the Church by their Gallionism in defending the Orders and Ceremonies of the Church and other Matters of Conformity which require their proportion of Zeal and Resolution by their hearing with patience and unconcernedness the Interest Honour and Peace of the Church run down by swaggering Sectaries by their talking Conformity and Nonconformity with such compassionate and serious Innuendo's as may sufficiently signify their favourable opinion of if not good-will to their Cause by their defending the popular Election of Bishops by ambiguously representing the Separation as if it were no Schism by their writing fraudulent Pleas for the Nonconformists by endeavouring to acquit the Presbyterians and Independents of the King's Murther and in statu quo by their Votes in chusing Parliaments and Convocations by their being a secretis with profest Nonconformists by their self-designing Compliances with them under pretence of Moderation similibus Whereby they contribute as much to the encouragement of Dissenters as the professed Encouragers themselves like King Charles's Presbyterian Murtherers who had the Villany to manage the Contrivance but the Cunning to disappear in the Execution These Half-Conformists are the veriest Church-Moles that by their blind Principles and undermining Practices contribute little less to the Increase and Interest of Nonconformity to the danger and dishonour of the Church than the open Enemy whether Popish or Peevish And of this we have frequent Instances particularly in Arch-bishop Grindal whose Indulgence to that Party gave them the first revival in England by his conniving at the Half-Conformists of York-shire by his complying first with Beza in procuring a French Church setled in London on the Geneva-Principle and afterwards with those who upon their return from Geneva Franckford and other Places where they lived during the Marian Persecution were preferred in the Church where they lived for some time Half-Conformists as Cartwright Minister in Warwick Whittingham Dean of Durham Sampson Dean of Christ-Church afterwards turned out for Nonconformity with great Numbers preferred to Cures in City and Country where they were not wanting to prepare the People for such Innovations as were in after-Times to be brought into the Church and by the profest Nonconformists As soon as Safety and Impunity permitted they broke out into open Schism and still when the Law 's just Severity frighted them they crept within the Pale of the Church seeming to conform that they might have the Law 's Protection to shelter their Contempt of Authority and under the Wing of Episcopaey to breed up their Presbytery When Arch-bishop Whitgift's Zeal and Industry had reduced them to that that in all probability their Ruptures were crumbling to nothing their then Refuge was as Beza advised in his Letter to Cartwright to unite themselves again to the main Body of the Church there to be nurtured into contempt of the Churches Government under the Indulgence of its Governors And of this kind of Half-Conformists are those who at this very day by outward Conformity have Opportunity and by masked Nonconformity want not Will through sneaking Compliance to betray the Church into her Enemies hands and
Things and to these within the Limits of our Ministerial Function only else our Obedience might extend even to wait at their Table or to the holding of their Stirrup both which and many other Things are lawful And therefore our Diocesans cannot call upon us to go beyond the Laws and by consequence that Liberty which the Law allows is our Right and Privilege We cannot see how we are tied to a more strict exact constant Conformity by this Oath than by the Laws and Rubricks of which we spake before Secondly he adds as an Enforcement of the Obligation That the Right Reverend Father the Lord Bishop of London hath laid his Commands upon us punctually to observe the Rites and Ceremonies To which I answer This Obligation lies upon none but him and others from whom that honourable Prelate hath required it What is all this to the Clergy of other Diocesses If that Right-Reverend Bishop hath exacted this other Diocesans have not required it And I could name some of great Name and Age who have expressed a greater Moderation in forbearing to require that punctual Observation of constant strict and exact Conformity as allowing some Scope in some Occurrences and Cases to Ministerial Discretion And now not finding his Inference in these three Premises let us see if we can find it in the fourth which binds all fast and sure 4 thly To make all sure c. I will saith he briefly shew that there is no Room for Equity and Moderation here in this Case And this he endeavours to prove 1. By the Notion of Moderation with respect to Laws 2. The Words of the Act of Uniformity 3. The Sence of the Law-givers that is First the Sence of his Majesty in his Declaration to stand by the Act of Uniformity Anno 1662. And 2. The Vote of the House of Commons Feb. 15. 1662. against Indulgence to Dissenters from the Act of Uniformity p. 44 45. To drive home the Nail and to make all sure that a moderate Man may not be able to stir from the Post of constant strict exact Duty He tells us There is no room for Equity or Moderation in this Case Then first did he leave his Text when he came to his Application in the Latitude of the Apostles sense which must needs be large because the Object All Men is a general Object The Text saith Let your Moderation be known to all Men. The Dissenters are a very numerous Part of the Nation some of the All Men. That which they desire is a Freedom or Abatement or Omission of some things required If we tell them with civil and respectful Language and with tenderness of Affection and Kindness you must conform to all things at all times invariably to the Law and that there is no Moderation to be exercised towards you I pray Sir 1. What kind of Law do you make this to be a Human Law forbidding a Duty to a Divine Law 2. What kind of Law-makers do you represent ours to be that made a Law forbidding the Exercise of a certain Christian Duty For now you know the Law being made it is out of the Law-givers Hand and Power till they in a legal Meeting please to anul it so that now you say as much as that there is a Law that shuts out Moderation such a Moderation as the case of Difference requires for Moderation of Affection and good Words doth not come home to the Dissenters Case which requires a Moderation in Fact and Exercise 3. What Encouragement is this for Dissenters to conform if by their Conformity they must shew no Moderation to the weak and doubting 4. Do not you furnish them with an unanswerable Argument against Conformity But Sir you produce our Subscription and Assent against us and is there no Moderation of Sence and Interpretation of it You may soon know that the Learned Mr. Chillingworth hath given a Sense of our Subscription to the Articles Preface Sect. 40. and it passed with the Approbation of the Vice-Chancellor and Professors of Divinity in Oxford The like is done by Arch-bishop Bramhall's Vindication of the Church of England p. 156. the first Edit And for the Book of Common-Prayer be pleased to cast an Eye upon the last Preface before the now enjoyned Book speaking of the former Book The Authors of it say they were fully perswaded in their Judgments that the Book doth not contain in it any thing contrary to the Word of God or sound Doctrine or which a godly Man may not with a good Conscience use and submit to or which is not fairly defensible against any that shall oppose the same if it shall be allowed such just and favourable Construction as in common Equity ought to be allowed to all human Writings especially such as are set forth by Authority and even to the best Translations of the holy Scripture it self Here is some Equity of Construction and Moderation in reference to the Book of Common-Prayer to which we assent supposing the same applicable to this which is spoken of the former which pretends to no higher Authority than that did And to use your own Words To make all sure you will see the Error of your dogmatical Assertion when you see it proved that Moderation and Equity must be allowed in this Case or else we are grosly abused by them that require Subscription to the Canon and cannot subscribe with Verity and Judgment We subscribe to the three Articles of Can. 36. In the second Article we say that the Book of Common-Prayer and of ordering and consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons contains nothing in it contrary to the Word of God and that it may be so used and promise to use that Form and no other in publick Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments Now that Canon is old as old as 1603 and refers to the Book of Common-Prayer then in use and not to this which in several Particulars differs from it We do not now subscribe to that Book as it stood then but to a Book lately changed in which are many things which were not in that If there be no Moderation or Equity of Interpretation of that Canon and by Consequence of our Subscription how can any Man subscribe and promise to use that Form and no other whereas we do not subscribe to that Book then in use to which the Canon relates but to that which is now in use We think now there is and must needs be an Equity and Moderation of Construction in this case 2. He saith in the present Case of Conformity there is nothing but what the Law-givers did foresee and provide against To prove this he repeats some words of the Act which say Nothing conduceth more to the Peace of the Nation Honour of Religion and Propagation thereof than an universal Agreement in the publick Worship of God and to that end in the next Paragraph of the Act it is enacted That all and singular Ministers in any place of publick